I agree with this idea. It might actually happen. For 50 years I have lived 45 miles from Ft. Bragg and only a few years ago I read that it was named for a confederate general. I just assumed it was named for a US army soldier. My Dad was at Bragg and Ft. Benning in WW 2.
Take the Confederate Names Off Our Army Bases - The Atlantic
It’s pretty weird we named bases after the enemy, how about Fort bin Laden?
Southerners still want to fight the Civil War . That’s why you still see the confederate flag all over the south. SC only took it down from their captial a few years ago.
Well, if you have to name something after an oath-breaking Confederate general, Bragg would be the one you want - apparently he did far more for the North than he did for the South:
You will never guess who vetoed this idea.
Especially given that most of these Confederate-commemorating names seem to have been bestowed in the 1920s-'40s, over half a century after the Civil War ended, I don’t really see a justification for them. This source describes them as “in some cases gestures of conciliation to the South”, but dude, you shouldn’t still need “conciliating” fifty years after losing a treasonous rebellion for the cause of white supremacy.
Nope, AFAICT any efforts for “conciliating the South” in the early 20th century just mean “accommodating resurgent white-nationalist bigotry and anti-black intimidation”. (An attitude that was by no means confined to the South, either.)
Yes, it’s possible to make a reasonable case for the subsequent historical and cultural significance of these military base names for generations of soldiers, independently of their Confederate-glorifying origins. But such arguments should be treated as the start of the debate on renaming, not excuses for shutting it down.
The monuments and the naming of bases for confederates was part of a conscious effort to rewrite history and often coincided with efforts to oppose segregation .
The predictable defense ‘you can’t take down those names because they reflect American history and heritage’ is weak. This nation has been in existence for 244 years; the rebel generals were rebel generals for less than four of those 244.
I’m comfortable using the word “traitor” at this point. Change the name, take down the monuments, remove the flags. Why would we as a nation continue to encourage division by glorifying the losers of the Civil War?
Seems unlikely.
Fort Bragg California was named before the Civil War for Braxton Bragg who was then a captain in the US Army.
Fort Bragg NC (the real Fort Bragg) was named about 1918 for the same guy, who was a local boy. As far as I know there were no big moves against segregation in 1918.
As for myself, I like old names. I dislike names like Joint Forces Base Fort Worth or Joint Base Lewis-McChord. Nothing wrong with being a money-saving joint base, it just seems an awkward way to say “Fort Lewis.”
Oh, don’t forget Fort Alexander Hamilton in Brooklyn. He traded in slaves.
Seriously? that was about the pinnacle of Jim Crow.
So…?
Yes. 1918 was not a time that “coincided with efforts to oppose segregation.” Segregation was (as far as I know) well-established and unchallenged.
ISTM the people being “conciliated” at this point were the Dixiecrat Congressmen and Senators in the respective states (which comes down to about the same thing as you’re describing, come to think of it), for the sake of the budgeting.
This. And Southern Anglo-Saxon heritage goes all the way back to 1607, so we’re really talking 4 years out of 413.
If they’re going to make a special point to honor this particular four years of their long heritage, there’s only one believable explanation of what that’s been all about. And it’s well past time for it to be over.
In 1913, segregation was reintroduced to the Civil Service, by Woodrow Wilson, who was still President in 1918
Sigh. This old argument again? Have you read any of the thousands of times it’s been refuted?
I agree that old school names sound cooler. The simple solution then would be not to give the bases in question modern names, but rather to substitute the names of Union generals, or generals from other wars. There’s plenty to pick from.
The Confederate States of America was a racist slave state. It was worse than South Africa even when that country was at its very worst. NOTHING about the Confederacy should be honored in any way.